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Sharon Valerii
Lt. Sharon "Boomer" Valerii was a Humanoid Cylon and one of millions of identical "Number Eight" models. Valerii was one of many sent into Colonial society in the 1990s with the goal of infiltrating the government and military. Unlike most, Valerii was sent in as a so-called Sleeper Agent - a Cylon who's knowledge of their Cylon nature has been suppressed and in its place given false memories of a human life - to better facilitate her infiltration. By 1998, Valerii graduated from the Colonial military's pilot training program, specialising in Raptors, and was stationed on Galactica. In the aftermath of the Fall of the Twelve Colonies, Valerii began to understand her hidden nature more and more, leading to her being murdered by a deck-hand. Her attempts to change Cylon society for the better led to the four month long occupation of New Caprica, where she lost all faith in humanity. Turned into a puppet of the Number Ones, Valerii played a key part in the constitutional crisis that saw the start of the Cylon Civil War. She met her permanent death in 2004 at the Colony, realising too late the savage nature of her faction. Biography Pre-fall Ahead of being sent out to infiltrate Colonial society, Valerii was given false memories of a human life to better blend in.Season 1 story bible. Among the false memories were her parents, Katherine and Abraham,Battlestar Galactica, episode: "Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part Ⅱ". two siblings and a cat named Mr. Perkels. In this fake life, she grew up on Troy, a small planet strip-mined for resources by Virgo and Leonis for centuries. Shunning her family's life in the mining industry, she set off for the Colonial Academy in the mid-1990s. During the transit, the Troy colony was wiped out in a disaster caused by a methane explosion rupturing its biodome, choking the survivors with exposure to its poisonous atmosphere.Battlestar Galactica, episode: "Flesh and Bone". This allowed two factors to guarantee her a successful infiltration. Firstly, there were no survivors or records left that would disprove her existence, and secondly, the Academy was committed to passing her to avoid political embarassment of washing-out a refugee. Valerii completed training as a Raptor pilot with the rank of Lieutenant, Junior Grade by 1998, and was assigned to Galactica. By then the oldest ship left in the fleet, Galactica was limited to in-system operations away from any action, and was undergoing preparations for its decommissioning. The assignment effectively gave her a quiet tour of duty away from any danger. Due to the nature of Galactica, the poor performance of Valerii in landing maneuvers was overlooked by the line officers more than it should have.Battlestar Galactica, episode: "Daybreak, Part Ⅱ". Due to these difficulties, she had a number of run-ins with the deck chief, Galen Tyrol, and the two soon began a romantic relationship. As Valerii had the additional role as the division officer in earmarking Chief Tyrol's deckhands for promotion, this created two separate conflicts of interest. While the two believed they were discreet, with Valerii deliberately making hard-landings to spend time in the back room to complain about fictional equipment failures,Battlestar Galactica: The Miniseries, "Night 1". it was in fact the talk of the ship, with her fellow pilots also clearly seeing her Electronic Countermeasures Officer Lt. Karl "Helo" Agathon feeling the same for her. However, Commander William Adama felt it was not a serious problem due to the decommissioning, and it was allowed to pass. In the months leading up to the decommissioning ceremony, the two made plans to leave the military after their transfer to Pegasus and get married. Little did Valerii know that Tyrol was also not human, having false memories implanted in his body to hide his nature as one of the Final Five, the Thirteenth Tribe refugees who created the eight Humanoid Cylon models. Life in the fleet On the day of the decommissioning ceremony in 2000, the Cylons began a massive-scale attack on the Cyrannus star system. Valerii and Agathon were flying a Raptor at the time, following one of Galactica's squadrons of Viper Mk VIIs back to Caprica when information came out on the wireless. Per their training, the Raptor kept behind the squadron to provide accurate DRADIS information and EC support in the event of a Raider ambush. This was indeed the case, but for the fact Valerii's fellow Cylon infiltrators had succeeded in creating a backdoor to the Command Navigation Program, a networked computer program near-universal in the fleet. The squadron was shut down wirelessly by the Raiders, which fired missiles to destroy them within seconds. The Raptor was able to escape the attackers, though was damaged. Requiring manual maintenance on the outer hull, Valerii's only solution was to fly the Raptor to Caprica as planned, but without power so that it be mistaken for debris. On the Caprican surface, Valerii hastily made the necessary repairs as the many cities in the distance were encompassed by mushroom clouds. When refugees fleeing the cities found the Raptor, the two were forced to stall, and allowed children to escape. With enough space for more, they ripped up a manual to use as a lottery so as to not show favouritism. When Dr. Gaius Baltar was recognised in the crowd, helping an elderly lottery winner take her seat, Agathon gave his seat on the computer scientist's behalf in the hopes he be useful. Following her escape from Caprica, Valerii listened in on wireless chatter of the war's progress, noting that Colonial forces were not simply losing, but suffering constant computer malfunctions before the fighting actually took place. The only exceptions were older and obsolete craft rushed into service. She, like so much of the Colonial Fleet's officers, failed to consider a CNP hack as the cause. Eventually, she was able to detect Colonial Heavy 798 on DRADIS. The government shuttle was on its way from a press conference on Galactica, and was ordered by the military to remain fixed to its space lane to avoid being caught-up in the fighting in planetary orbit. Carrying on board Laura Roslin, a member of the cabinet, the shuttle acted upon ad hoc government policy to rescue other stranded ships before power problems could take hold. She would soon be inaugurated as President, with Valerii taking orders through Captain Leland Adama, a Viper pilot already on ship. For the next several hours, Valerii was able to use her Raptor's FTL drives to jump across the space lanes and send coordinates to stranded vessels in total disregard of her CO's system-wide declaration surviving ships rendezvous with Galactica at Ragnar. Eventually, however, Valerii ran out of ships to find, and the new emergency policy began to transfer civilians from sub-light ships to FTL ships so that they could finally head to Ragnar. A Cylon Raider jumped near the refugee fleet while on a scouting mission and reported back its position, forcing a hurried evacuation that abandoned the sub-light ships to Cylon nuclear warheads without any transfers. Moving into Ragnar's upper atmosphere, Valerii returned to her ship to embrace Chief Tyrol, who had feared her dead.Battlestar Galactica: The Miniseries, "Night 2". Galactica and the civilian refugees - together "the fleet" - succeeded in escaping the Cyrannus star system, but every thirty-three minutes a Cylon basestar was able to track them down and jump close-by. This continued on for five days, causing serious problems for Galactica's Viper pilots, requiring the use of stimulants. The most promising was Valerii herself, who showed little signs if any of tiredness over the five days while performing Raptor support roles with her new ECO, Lt. Alex "Crashdown" Quartararo, who had escaped the destruction of Triton over Virgon and replaced Agathon. Upon the destruction of the passenger liner, Olympic Carrier, life returned to normal for the time-being.Battlestar Galactica, episode: "33". Soon, Valerii was contacted by a circle of Humanoid Cylons who had escaped the Fall in the civilian fleet. Having never considered so many survivors, they began plans to cause carnage within the fleet under the leadership of "Galactica-Cavil", a Number One posing as a priest and billeted on Galactica.''Battlestar Galactica: The Plan''. This group also included a Number Five and two Sixes, though they were also aware of a Two, Three and Four elsewhere in the fleet. Considering Valerii's occupation to be of use, Galactica-Cavil would awaken her true self to give orders, then place her back in her trance as a Sleeper Agent. In the first such instance of this, Valerii entered a small arms locker and stole six G-4 detonators from storage and donned her space-suit to place five of them in the pressurised water tanks, keeping a further two for further use.Battlestar Galactica, episode: "Water". Galactica-One advised she kill herself as she would likely be implicated anyway, but she refused, expressing a longing to be in her human persona again as she felt lonely as a Cylon. When Galactica-Cavil left, Valerii came-to sat in near her bunk still wearing her soaking suit. Changing her uniform, she found one of the G-4 explosives. Totally unable to explain it being in her locker and hearing rumours spread from Lt. Quartararo about Cylons in human form, she was too afraid to directly report it and instead discretely entered the arms locker to place it back, only to find the other six still missing. Unable to hide this, she went to Tyrol, who became angry with her for not telling the Master-at-Arms but was quickly swept to her side. When the water tanks were ruptured, Valerii took the Raptor out to shine its lights through the opening while Tyrol and Spc. Calandra Henderson checked the damage in EV suits, confirming it to be caused by the G-4 and showing one still missing. When the water shortage became a fleet-wide issue, a number of Raptor teams were sent out to find worlds with drinkable supplies of water. Valerii took off once more, venturing to the Kimiko system. In the event of her successfully detecting water, Valerii's mission for Cavil's cell was to kill herself with the final G-4, something which would deny the fleet water and allow her to escape execution for sabotage. Water was indeed detected on one moon in the system, but Valerii's Cylon half reneged before she could detonate the G-4 charge in the cockpit and her human persona took hold once more. Realising the G-4 was on the Raptor, Valerii alerted Tyrol to a fault with her Raptor once she returned to the hangar deck, and he covered for her by returning it to the Master-at-Arms claiming it was found during a routine maintenance check. Sixteen days after the Fall, Valerii's relationship with Tyrol became increasingly difficult. Having already ordered a stop to it by Col. Saul Tigh, the ship's XO, the deck hands worked to keep it going in quiet. Cavil's cell, having realised the Number Five models were now known to the fleet, urgently required the disposal of their member. Through help from Valerii, the Five made his way through an opening in the unguarded Causeway C towards an arms locker, killed a Marine guard and somehow gained the passcode to enter, then constructed a suicide vest. Returning to the hangar deck until a civilian ship docked, he was able to walk on Galactica with documentation identifying him as an approved visitor. Ultimately he was spotted by both Cmdr. Adama and Col. Tigh and was forced to detonate the vest before he could reach anything of value. After helping the Five get to the arms locker, Valerii met Tyrol in secret with the prospect of sex and give herself an alibi for him. In the aftermath of the bombing, their relationship was put under spotlight when she, Tyrol and several deck-hands were unable to give consistent testimonies as to Tyrol's whereabouts during the bombing, and with President Roslin using the bombing to confirm the existence of Humanoid Cylons, was under suspicion as a Cylon agent and, by association, Valerii herself. The investigation was concluded when another deck hand, Spc. Socinus, was caught-out making two contradictory statements and took the blame for the hatch being open due to deserting his post. Greatly disturbed by the thought of one of his deckhands being in the brig over the relationship, Tyrol finally ended it, and questioned if Valerii was the one who left the causeway hatch open.Battlestar Galactica, episode: "Litmus". In the aftermath of losing Tyrol, Valerii began to seriously consider herself being a Cylon, being in shock to find the word "CYLON" written in the mirror of her locker.Battlestar Galactica, episode: "Six Degrees of Separation". Not long after, she tried to warm up to Tyrol on the hanger-deck to save their friendship. Observing Tyrol performing maintenance on a captured Raider which he was unable to get working, she accidentally slipped into her Cylon persona and disturbed him in her fond descriptions of it as an animal, even changing the tone of her voice. Returning to the human persona, she tried to cover this by saying it was a simple guess. Against her better judgment, she revealed her suspicions to him, but he brushed it off as dark humour, though suspected the same thing.Battlestar Galactica, episode: "Flesh and Bone". Hearing of the Cylon Detector being developed by Dr. Baltar, she forced him to put her in his beta test, reminding him she was the pilot who got him off Caprica. The test almost instantly came up positive for a Cylon, but out of fear the Cylon persona would take hold and kill him to protect herself, he declared the test negative and that she was indeed human, and for some time she felt happy again. During a scouting operation in search of new tylium resources, Valerii and Quartararo uncovered a tylium-rich asteroid which was already being mined by Cylon forces and defended by Raider squadrons. With the fleet running low on tylium, it became imperative the asteroid be captured. In an operation carefully planned by Lt. Kara "Starbuck" Thrace, civilian cargo ships carrying a Viper squadron were to jump near the asteroid in the guise of a legitimate civilian mining operation. Two or three Raptors, piloted by Valerii and "Stubb", were to hold position near the ships to gauge the size of the Cylon force, alert Galactica and its own Viper squadron on the other side of the asteroid to any changes, and to order the civilian ships' departure if the Raiders got too close. In spite of several Viper pilots being killed, no civilian ships were lost and the fleet succeeded in capturing the asteroid.Battlestar Galactica, episode: "The Hand of God". In the days after the tylium asteroid capture, Valerii's mental condition began to deteriorate once more and she began considering suicide, fearing she was about to do some horrible thing. After a Raptor scouting operation discovered the planet Kobol, she returned to her rack and was met by Dr. Baltar. Though planning on meeting Lt. Thrace, he realised her despair and, afraid she would kill him in time, convinced her it was OK to pull the trigger. Seconds after his departure, she shot herself through the mouth.Battlestar Galactica, episode: "Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part Ⅰ". The injury was superficial and treated quickly by Dr. Cottle, allowing her to return to duty within hours. When Tyrol came into sickbay, she revealed the truth to him alone. During her time in sickbay, Cartman took her place in a Raptor-led archaeological expedition to Kobol. Attacked by Cylons, Tyrol, Quartararo, several deck hands and Dr. Baltar were stranded on the surface of the planet, now defended by a Basestar. Despite his disappointment in an officer showing irresponsibility in 'forgetting' to check her chamber was empty before cleaning her gun, Cmdr. Adama ordered her out of bed on a special assignment. Using a Cylon transponder, Valerii and her new ECO - Lt. Margaret "Racetrack" Edmondson - were able to fly straight into the Basestar unmolested and carrying a nuclear warhead. When the mechanism for carrying the payload jammed, Valerii was forced to exit the Raptor while docked in the Basestar's pressurised hangar bay. While rigging the bomb, she was confronted by a dozen nude Number Eight models, who removed her helmet. The sight of these women finally revealed the absolute truth to her, but she still ran back into the Raptor to cling to her human life. After the Basestar's successful destruction, the two officers were ordered to CIC to receive a personal congratulation from Cmdr. Adama. While extending his arm out to shake her hand, Valerii's Cylon persona kicked in once more and she instead shot him twice.Battlestar Galactica, episode: "Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part Ⅱ". Tackled to the ground by a Marine guard, she returned to the human persona once more and claimed not to know what was happening.Battlestar Galactica, episode: "Scattered". Taken to the brig, Valerii was interrogated for information on the Cylon fleet population, but refused, even shifting between personas while being beaten by Col. Tigh. Reconsigning a need for specialised containment of Cylon prisoners, Tigh ordered the construction of a new, reinforced brig. When the Raptor SAR mission returned from Kobol with Tyrol, he was arrested on Tigh's orders as a suspected Cylon co-conspirator and thrown in as well. Having learnt the truth, Tyrol was uncooperative with her and refused to show any affection to her while in the brig. Dr. Baltar, who also survived, entered the room to conduct enhanced interrogation techniques with Valerii, desperate to find out how many Cylons were left in the fleet. Rather than attack her and risk being killed, he injected Tyrol with a lethal poison and withholding the antidote until getting an answer. Whether her Cylon side giving in to his demands or the human side lying, she told him there were eight Cylons in the fleet, and he saved Tyrol's life. Soon after the interrogation, the Cylon brig completed its construction, and the two were walked in shackles to it. Though Cmdr. Adama ultimately survived urgent surgery to remove the bullet, anger towards Valerii over the attempted killing continued. Moved through a busy causeway to loud jeers, the Marine guards failed to spot Spc. Henderson running up with a gun. Valerii was shot and died in Tyrol's arms, declaring her love for him.Battlestar Galactica, episode: "Resistance". Life as a Cylon In the episode "Downloaded", it is revealed Boomer's consciousness has been downloaded into a new body. She tries to live on Caprica like in her old life as a human. She resists being identified with the Cylon cause, although they view her and Caprica Six as heroes. Over time, she begins to open up to Caprica Six, who like her has been transformed by their love for a human. They decide to try to persuade the Cylons some of their actions against mankind are wrong. Number Three threatens to have them "boxed", that is, placing their consciousness into "cold storage". Boomer is among the Cylons occupying New Caprica. She has accepted herself as a Cylon and is fully integrated back into their society. She functions as a member of the Cylon governing council that controls the puppet human government under President Gaius Baltar. Her desire remains to show humans and Cylons can co-exist, however, relations between the two groups turn increasingly hostile. Boomer visits Cally who has been imprisoned to tell her she is doing everything that she can to free her, and attempts to make peace. She indicates she has accepted Tyrol moving on and starting a family with Cally. However, Cally remains distrustful and angrily rebuffs her. Relation to Hera Agathon and 2nd Death In the episode "The Eye of Jupiter", Boomer is seen attempting to care for Athena's hybrid child Hera, who is mysteriously ill. She is frustrated by the child's deteriorating health and their inability to bond. She later joins D'Anna and Cavil when they go to meet Adama and Roslin on Galactica. Athena identifies Boomer as the Cylon who shot Adama, and Tigh informs her that her visiting privileges have been revoked. Boomer tells Athena that Hera is still alive and living among the Cylons, but has fallen ill. Athena arrives on the Cylon Base Ship and is reunited with Hera who immediately stops crying. Caprica Six is amazed how Hera responds to being back with her "real mother", however Boomer is upset. Athena determines Hera would best be treated by a human doctor. Boomer accuses her of having planned to take Hera back to Galactica from the start. Boomer says the failure of New Caprica has taught her humans and Cylons cannot co-exist and should go their separate ways. Throughout this meeting, Boomer becomes increasingly distressed and emotionally unstable. She suggests Cavil may be right that the Cylons are not supposed to have children, and ultimately threatens to snap Hera's neck, but her own neck is snapped by Caprica Six for endangering the future of the Cylon race. 2nd Resurrection and Relation with John Cavil Shortly thereafter, Boomer again resurrects. She has begun to develop a relationship with John Cavil, a Cylon who embraces his machine nature and sees human traits as a weakness. Cavil insists the Raiders should undergo a procedure to remove or at least reduce their sentience, and he enlists Boomer's aid when the Cylons become deadlocked over the matter. While her fellow Eights vote as a group against the procedure, Boomer decides to vote yes in order to make the Raiders effective fighters once again. In so doing, she becomes the first Cylon to ever vote against her own model (meaning that in a six-vote bloc, she casts an unheard-of seventh vote). After Cavil is gunned down by Natalie's forces, he resurrects and begins to plot the permanent death of the opposing Cylons, including Boomer's fellow Eights, by killing them out of range of a Resurrection ship. Boomer has doubts about killing her "own sisters", and when Cavil reassures her the souls of the others will be looked after by God, she asks, "what about our souls?" Cavil assures her, "We're machines, machines don't have souls." Relation to Ellen Tigh and Return to Galactica Boomer is the only other Cylon who Cavil has told that he is keeping their creator, Ellen Tigh, prisoner. He teaches Boomer to let go of her human traits to become a better machine. Cavil describes Boomer as "self-destructive, hyper-emotional, torn apart by conflicting emotions." Boomer asks Ellen if she feels any regret for limiting the Cylon by making them as close to humans as possible. Ellen says she gave them free will, the ability to think creatively, to reach out to others with compassion and love. Boomer asks angrily who she should love. When the Resurrection Hub is destroyed, Cavil and Boomer demand Ellen help them redevelop the technology. Cavil threatens to cut open Ellen's brain in order to access her knowledge, but Boomer spirits her away in a Raptor, telling Ellen she is forgiving her. When they arrive on Galactica, Tyrol identifies her as Boomer and she is immediately taken to the brig. "Did Boomer really love the Chief? That’s an interesting question and one I don’t have a neat answer to. Boomer is deeply conflicted. I think the process of having false memories planted in her, getting switched “on” as a Cylon, shooting Adama, getting shot by Cally, and her experiences on New Caprica have left her severely disturbed. She was determined to go through with her mission, but in the process of seducing Tyrol she reawakened feelings of love that she thought were dead. I think she experienced real misgivings just before she got on that Raptor, but felt she had gone too far to back down. Wrapped up in that is her perverse envy of Athena, who obtained everything Boomer once wanted, and this festered into a sick desire to strike out at Athena. It's difficult to say someone who did that loves the Chief, and yet in her damaged way, I think she did and still does love him." Writer David Weddle discussing the character of Boomer. The Cylon rebels decide to put her on trial for treason, with capital punishment possible due to the loss of resurrection. When Tyrol goes to see her in the brig, she professes her continued love for him. She shares with him projections of their dream home on Picon, in which they are married and have a daughter. Convinced she will be found guilty and executed, Tyrol helps her escape. Relation of Hera Agathon She beats Sharon "Athena" Agathon and hides her, bound and gagged, in a bathroom stall. She puts on a pilot uniform and starts cleaning up, however, Karl Agathon finds her before she can leave. Thinking she is his wife Athena who is set to go on a six-day mission, he starts seducing her. Boomer tries to leave but then changes her mind and has sex with him. She then picks up Hera from the daycare center and quickly drugs her with a drink. Boomer hides Hera in a provisions supply case to be loaded onto a Raptor. She assures Tyrol she was not lying about what she told him. "Boomer is much more tragic and conflicted, and in a lot of denial. Athena came from a very different starting point, and everything was a lie, but she fought and made it through the trenches. She's a story not of privilege, but about creating whoever you want to be. That's the American story. Boomer could have been a number of things too, but she made a lot of poor decisions." Actress Grace Park discussing the characters of Boomer and Athena. Adama has been alerted Boomer is impersonating Athena and tries to stall her. However, Boomer figures out she has been discovered, and starts powering up her Raptor. Adama warns her he will shoot her down but Boomer tells him she has Hera. Adama starts closing the flight pod but she manages to fly out, clipping her port wing. She then quickly jumps away, close enough to damage Galactica from the resulting spatial disruption. Ellen later concludes everything Boomer did, including helping her escape, was planned in order to kidnap Hera and bring her to Cavil. Final Death Boomer keeps jumping her stolen Raptor headed for The Colony. Hera cries for her mother and Boomer goes to sedate her but cannot bring herself to do it. Instead she tells Hera about her projection of her and Tyrol's home on Picon and Hera surprises her by revealing she can project too and joining her in the projection. Boomer shows Hera the bedroom she dreamed of for her daughter and bonds with the girl. She ultimately takes her to Cavil but has doubts when Hera calls out for her. During the Colonials' assault on The Colony to rescue Hera, Boomer is shocked that Simon continues examining Hera. When he refuses to stop, Boomer kills him and takes Hera to the rescue party and returns her to her parents. Athena does not wish to forgive Boomer, who says she knew it would likely be her last act. She says she owed something to the Admiral, who had not ejected her from the Colonial Fleet when she kept failing to make proper landings. Boomer is then shot and killed by Athena. With the loss of Resurrection, her death is final. Dual Sleeper mode The movie Battlestar Galactica: The Plan shows that while she was a sleeper agent aboard Galactica, Boomer had a submerged personality who was aware of her true nature and had a romantic connection to the Brother Cavil aboard the ship, though she was extremely conflicted about her actions. Cavil used an elephant figurine as a trigger to switch Boomer from one mode to the other. This Boomer revealed that she had feelings for Tyrol too and cared deeply for Admiral Adama and stated that she preferred her human personality being in control, that she liked herself better when her main self was in control. This personality blew up the water tank (and came up with the plan to do so) and shot Adama, but she said to do so, she had to mentally make herself a Centurion which deeply disturbed her. After hearing this, Cavil abandoned Boomer to her fate in the brig and this personality never seemed to emerge again. The prostitute Six (and even Tyrol) believes that when she shot Adama, she purposefully didn't kill him. Appearances *''Battlestar Galactica'' *''33'' Sources Category:Colonial Fleet officers Category:Females Category:Humanoid Cylons Category:Pilots Category:Sleeper agents